The New Philosophy

Below is a part of my newly composed resume':

Sales and Marketing Officer, March 2012 – Present

1.       Called prospective clients to request for appointments to present the company and to introduce the services offered by the company

2.       Attended to prospective client’s meetings to sell the company’s services

3.       Did follow-up calls and e-mails to prospective clients from the previous meetings

4.       Researched and reviewed competitors and their services in the market

5.       Created online advertisements about the company and its needs

6.       Organized files on marketing results and statuses using Microsoft Excel

7.       Submitted weekly reports to the president of the company

8.       Outsourced supplies and other requirements that were needed by existing and new clients

9.       Supervised Miyasaka’s production with actual visits and time study

10.   Worked as assistant to deliveries and pick-ups

11.   Processed IMPEX in PEZA

12.   Assisted in HR recruitments

It was a combination of Marketing, Sales, Advertising, Reporting, Supervising, Delivery and Shipping, Outsourcing, Meeting with Clients, IMPEX, and HR. Truth is there is more to all of this and I am not going to mention them anyway.

I just felt bad that there are people in our office who had an attitude. They act like they are more important than anyone else in the office. I know that they have so many tasks to do—just like me. Many times I had to sacrifice my marketing just to attend to other things. If I was getting a light day, I voluntarily offer a hand even if many times, it’s out of my scope of work. I just wanted to help and it’s for the benefit of the company as a whole. On the other hand, I never received the same amount of support in my share of the office.

This is not a complaint. It is my venting-out here because I have to or else, I am going to explode.

I respect everyone in the office. Naturally, I thought I would get that same respect. Besides, if we wouldn’t get more clients through MY MARKETING, there would be not much HR and accounting tasks. And what happened today was too much for me. Below is the story.

The new client we got last week which according to the previous marketing staff who was not successful in marketing and now the HR warned me on my first day of this client being harsh and snob. Praise God that we got that snob client now as our new client. It was a rough and hard marketing before I finally won the snob client. Of course, I don’t want to lose them.

Last week, the new client asked for three janitorial drivers. I’m telling you it’s not easy to take out all the disorganized resumes scattered around the room to look for three people who could drive and do housekeeping. Still, we found three. Tuesday this week, the three were endorsed and were approved by the new client. But before the day was over, one of them decided to back out. We had to search for another driver who could also do housekeeping. Sir Jun found one. I already left the office when that driver reported to the office that Tuesday. Sir Jun entrusted me about the new client before I left the office.

On Wednesday morning, the old-marketing-staff-now-doing-HR told me that the new driver would report later that day for the 2PM shift. I was also advised that Domeng was asked by Sir Jun the previous day to have the new driver endorsed to our new client. That relieved me right away from further stress.

While waiting for that driver, I decided to do my marketing for the first two hours which was expected of me. After that, I was doing the 8106 for IMPEX in PEZA. It was quite complicated because we had to farm out 20 sacks and 6 crates of grommets and I had to finish that before lunch.

While I was waiting for the grommets pickup, I was re-encoding the application data of applicants from the very first resume as part of my suggestion to get all the resumes and other application forms settled in one place for easy sorting. To give you an idea of the Sorting of Resumes Project, it might a week or two since I was alone organizing them. This would definitely help HR to do her job a lot better which should have been done before. I thought it’s their scope of work to organize their things. They should have the initiative to do that in the first place since she had been complaining of that since she was transferred to HR task.

The HR was always complaining and so did the new hired guy who had assumed the accounting/system developer.

Now there is this Domeng guy knowing that he was in charge of the new driver’s endorsement left the office at 1PM. He knew he had to wait for the new driver but still he left. It was a matter of two minutes when he left and the new driver arrived. I went out and saw Domeng walking away in quite distance. I shouted asking him that his driver had finally arrived. I know the feeling of walking under the cruel heat of the sun because I had experienced that myself while doing the marketing task but hello? He was in charge of the driver’s endorsement and I felt easily bad when he even complained to me. As if he wanted me to do what was asked of him from the previous day. But I had to let that one go and thought of happy thoughts.

Now the new guy who is the accounting/system developer asked me for the company’s cell phone from his table and I was in my table. I said it was on Sir Dan’s table which was next to his table. I said that two times. He was talking as if he was my boss. I did not like his tone so I said, “If it’s not there, it’s not with me either.” I was controlling the rage in me as if it was my job to look for that missing phone. He was acting as if whatever it was he’s doing was more important than what I was doing. I was like, ‘Hello, I’m not your secretary?’ And after searching with his mouth, he found the phone on Sir Dan’s table. I had to let go that one as well for the sake of peace in the office.

While I was doing Miyasaka and a little bit of marketing, I got a call from our new client who was very mad at us on the phone. They did not like the replacement driver and was very mad for the fact that the new driver was endorsed to them with no papers at all. They felt offended that they were clueless about the different driver.

Now, this endorsement was not part of marketing. Preparing for his papers for endorsement? Was that one of the reasons we have HR in the office? But I did not argue on the phone and promised them a new driver. They wanted it right away like in an hour. The last time I remember, we spent a whole day looking for drivers who do housekeeping as well. But I took the challenge because I was given no other option. I felt bad that I got to receive the blame for the mistake of our HR. So I announced it right away in the office so WE COULD FIX THE PROBLEM.

I called a couple of numbers praying that they could report in the next hour. Our HR said to me to fix it up by myself. I was so upset because the client was mad because our HR forgot an important part of her task as ‘HR’ in the first place.

I was controlling my anger. I wanted everything to be ready when the new driver arrived so that we could meet the challenge of one hour. And the HR was so relaxed saying she was busy. I was like, “Am I not busy myself? Majority of it was your fault and you want me to deal with it just like that?!” But of course, I did not say that.

While preparing what I thought the client needed for the new driver, the grommet pickup just arrived. That happened exactly when the photocopy machine was acting up on me. I left that and had to take 26 trips to the second floor to bring the 20 sacks and 6 crates of grommets down to the truck. I was sticky and sweating and very irritable all over while the HR and the new guy were feeling self-important. They were laughing, making fun of things while I was cooling down myself.

When the new driver arrived, I had to prepare him because no one would want to do that. I got his uniforms, his safety shoes, and his papers. I was waiting on the relaxed HR to get the ID laminated. It was already half an hour late to the one hour challenge. I felt bad because it was not easy to get clients. She, now the HR, should know that because when she was hired for marketing position in January this year, she had a very hard time and never got any clients at all.

While preparing the new driver, another driver applicant arrived for the second time in the office. He went to the office early that day but the replacement guy was already scheduled for the 2PM shift so this other driver applicant had to go home. We didn’t know that the 2PM driver would mess up and the client would need another driver right away. I called a couple of driver applicants, including the one who went to the office earlier that day, and I didn’t expect that two would show up. But I had to prioritize the first one to arrive. I thought the HR would deal with the other driver applicant since SHE is the HR, as what she always says.

I went with the new driver for a 20-minute walk to the new client to endorse him there. I had to deal with disappointed client’s HR. Apologizing again for the inconvenience. Thank God that was fixed.

When I got back to the office, the other driver applicant was never entertained at all. Considering that he already went to the office that day twice. So I had to explain to him about what happened because who knows, another driver might back out and we would need him when that happens. What if he does not come back?

I was so angry at HR and accounting/system developer and I could not do anything about it. I felt it was so unfair. But before I left the office, I said sorry to the HR. I was sorry for not understanding her immaturity and unprofessionalism at work.

I was almost tempted to apply TL May’s philosophy, “Make my life miserable and I will make your life MORE miserable.” But of course, that is not a good one.

Tomorrow, Sir Jun will be back and he might call for a meeting in the office. I don’t know how I would deal with it. Help me with that, Abba.

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It’s Positive!

A couple of weeks ago, Mama teasingly broke the news to me that my young aunt in San Pedro is conceiving their second baby. Their first baby is just one year and few months old.  As if that was not enough good news, I also learned that one of my cousins is also on their second baby. Also, in the house, we have two babies. Every time I had either Ezra or Ethan on my arms as we strolled around in front house, people asked the same questions. “Is that your baby?” “When are you going to have your baby?” At first, I just smiled the questions away. However, I would be very dishonest to myself if I would deny of being offended by their questions.

And let me add to this that three of my eightmile-friends just had their babies all within the past four months! Imagine us, Gracia and I, going there to congratulate them and wish their babies good health and very promising future, some would still find a way to crash the high spirits down deep in my heart when they started asking, “When are you going to have yours?” You know that feeling when people around you, whether it’s done in purpose or not, are pushing you to have a baby. It is as if you could go to the mall and buy your baby from there. And I am not really thinking that next month, Gracia and I will celebrate our first wedding anniversary. Okay, I’m telling you that I can spell ‘pressured’ in two letters, M-E.

It’s not that Gracia and I do not want to have a baby. Of course, we do want to have babies! But we thought God would give our babies in His perfect timing. However, Gracia and I decided to take it a little bit more seriously two months ago.

Since two weeks ago, Gracia was a little different. She kept complaining of some discomforts. I also noticed that some of her body parts were changing. One more thing I noticed was that I felt I wanted her more than before. Don’t get me wrong. I love her but something in me was climbing to the next level. Okay, that was a bit cheesy to say, I know that. But that was how I felt.

I was more attracted to her. I felt I always wanted to be next to her more often than usual. I easily got jealous of some trivial stuff. In other words, something strange was happening to the both of us. I was even teasing Gracia that she might be pregnant that her body was releasing a stronger love scent, making me more attracted to her, laughs!

So last Sunday, after the Sunday service at church, we bought pregnancy test kit. I was so tired when we got home and I didn’t realize that Gracia went straight to the comfort room and did the test there all by herself. By the way, that was not the first time she had that test. The moment she got out of the room, she was all smiles and nervous at the same time. Then she finally broke the news to all of us who were present in the dining room that time that it was positive! I was kind of jealous for not being able to seize the moment all to ourselves. (See my Christian heart here? Laughs! Sorry, Abba. ) But of course, I was happy that everyone was happy for us! Unsolicited advices started to flood in our conversations, laughs!

It took us a couple more days to really believe the great news. We even bought another pregnancy test kit just to be sure and it gave the same result. And today, good thing it’s holiday, we had our first happy trip to the Community Hospital. There the doctor confirmed that Gracia is five-week-and-two-days pregnant! Two weeks from now Gracia would have an ultrasound.

I am not really sure that we both reach that stage where this has finally sunk in. Even before our wedding last year, we were thinking of names for our babies. I thought we had settled that already. It’s so funny that we still have cute agreements on baby names. Well, we agreed that if we got twin daughters, we will name them Graciella Dan and Cielo Nikola. The second names are to honor our fathers. If we got a boy, we will name him Zephaniah Markus. Funny, we can’t help it but be very excited. And one thing we are very sure, we are very thankful to God for blessing us our babies. Thank You, Abba. Thank You that it’s positive.

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